The Words Spoken In the Silence of You and Me
by VanishRain
Summary: In a drunken haze of limbs and admissions the truth is laid in the open. As Brennan awakes the morning after, she learns she may be the only one ready to stop playing pretend. It has been six months, when will he stop running and what is he running from?
1. The Silence

It wasn't supposed to end like this. It was never supposed to end with him leaving her. It was always supposed to be her leaving him. She was the one who ran, not him. He was her rock, her un-denying salvation but as the sun slowly cascaded over her flaws she found she was once again alone. It had been six months of passionate nights followed by mornings taunting her of what could have been. It wasn't supposed to be like this… he told her he loved her nightly but by morning all she was left was his scent.

Night after night it was the same. She couldn't deny him even if she tried. She was an addict and he was her drug. They were perfect, too damn perfect but deep down the realities kept screaming of what they could be, what they should be as they faded into an all familiar embrace.

"_Bones… we really are too drunk…" Booth slurred as he stumbled into her front door. "Do you not…_

"_No, no, no, no." She chanted over and over, trying to push the rationality of her reality out of her mind for just one night. After years of watching him from a distance she knew she deserved this much. He was hers and if all he would give her was his body, it would be something she would learn to accept._

"_We… we…" All thought left his brain the second her fingers slipped into his belt loop and pulled him toward her. Such a simple act spoke of a desperation he had long since longed for. "God… Bones…"_

_Mirroring her nimble fingers his hands trailed down her slender form and stopping at her hips. They bucked in response to his tight grip but as he leaned into her she knew the fight was lost._

"_These, my dear, these just won't do." He grinned as he eyed the thin fabric separating him from her beauty._

"_Damnit Booth" Brennan gasped as his hands ripped at her shirt, causing the buttons to scatter, "it doesn't…. ohhh"_

_"Like it, don't ya baby?" He groaned as his hands scattered over her porcelain skin. "You like it rough." His eyes glinted as she fidgeted under his hands. Draping his lips over her body he smiled at how quickly she was soothed._

_In a furry of hands the clothes scattered across the room with thuds and moans._

"_Admit it, Bones." He growled as he pinned her against the wall and she gasped. "Admit your mine now."_

_With a smile Brennan ran her hands down his chiseled chest stopping short of his hips, "No."_

"_You admit it." She spat, unable to help her rebellious nature as her hands flexed into every defining muscle._

"_Oh God you know I am, Bones. Every damn second of every damn day." He groaned at the sharp trails her nails were making down his back, "You know I fucking love you."_

That first night played over and over in her head. She was unable to keep the smile from her lips as she paced in front of her front door, waiting for a single knock. A knock she had become accustomed to. A knock that would set her to flight only to come crashing down in an unrecognizable heap. Like a thief in the dark of night, he whisked her into his arms with promises of love and eternity only to leave her alone in her torturous new reality.

Every morning she awoke to find she was empty. The culprit a mere phone call away, a call that would never truly say all the things two naked, raw bodies could. She needed him under her hands, under her body and completely vulnerable. Every so often during a case his eyes would glance up at her with a smoldering flicker and she knew. He needed her too. But by morning as he slowly slipped on his clothes and walked away in silence he left her wondering. Wondering if his eyes would ever speak of his silent lies.

The silence was ripping at her heart, sacrificing piece by fragile piece. She knew what was at stake as she pushed the door in response to his light knocking but she didn't care anymore.

"Hey." He coyly smiled just as he did on nights like this.

"Hi." She slightly smiled but could not suppress the hallow sense looming above.

She was so close to breaking she could taste it but above all rational night after night she opened the door and her heart to her partner. Maybe tonight wasn't going to be the night she broke but it was going to be soon. They both knew it.

"Can I come in?"

With a nod and a smile, she sealed her fate. Another night of earth shattering love followed by the death blow of loneness. She was in too deep now, she now knew, and the silence spoke louder than any words ever could.

_I want you._

_I need you._

_I love you._


	2. Marked By Love

Watching her partner slowly slip from her grasp Brennan couldn't help the light shudder that filled her being. She was sure she had prepared for this but as he slipped on his jeans her eyes narrowed at the back of his head, willing him to just turn around. It had been months of the same resolve yet the little girl walled up inside begged for the man of her dreams to stay, just this once stay and lay it all to bare.

"Booth…" She whispered lightly as soon as he left. "Please…"

With a slam and silence he was gone. Off to the lands of make believe as they danced the dance of a love so wretched and weak a slight sigh would break the silence that binds two hearts long since intertwined in sweet surrender.

Another morning playing pretend among the angels, Brennan slipped out of her bed and slowly walked into the bathroom. Going through the motions she found herself sitting at her desk in front of stack of papers. She wasn't sure how she got there or what she was doing but the footsteps slowly increasingly set her heart aflutter.

Flicking up her eyes at her partner's presence her eyes fixated on the deep purple hue his skin had taken trailing down from just below his ear to his chest. The bright purple mark stopped at his shirt but Brennan knew how far and deep the marks really were.

"Hey Bren I-" Angela turned and smiled at the FBI agent, "looks like someone got marked. Who's the lucky lady?"

Booth went pale as his hand reached up and lightly trailed down his neck and flinching at the burning pain that followed. How had she bruised him so hard it actually hurt to touch it? Damn, she was good.

"Angela," Brennan's stark glare brought all the attention back to her, "the forms?"

With a slight nod Angela placed a folder on the pile with a frown at Brennan's sudden sorrow.

"Cam needs them by the end of the night." She nodded as her eyes scanned Booth once more, "Good luck with that. You might want to… restrain her or something next time. That has _got _to hurt." She motioned at Booth's clearly disheveled persona. His demeanor spoke of a battle ragging deep inside.

The partner's gazes met but soon broke, their eyes divulging what their hearts could no longer hide. Love twinkled in their eyes, that day, the unending, heart wrenching love that shatters dreams and shifts time itself. A love too scary to be much more than a fantasy.

"Dinner tonight?" Brennan shrugged as she watched her partner slowly walk out of her office.

"Actually…" He stopped but did not turn around, "I have a date tonight."

"Oh." The anguish was mounting as she pleaded for the tears to not fall.

"Yeah…" He nodded slightly before running as quickly out of the Jeffersonian as his feet would take him.

He needed a break. He needed to just get away, they both did. This nightly sex routine was neither healthy nor a benefit to their partnership. He knew it was a horrible way for her to find out but he knew it was best not to lie. Just one date with another woman, a woman who was _just_ good enough. That is what he needed to get this woman, pure perfection, out of his system. She was his partner and nothing more. Sex with meaning would just complicate things more than they already were. He just needed a smile with half a brain. Just… something to shake the woman that was haunting his heart day and night.

Yet at 9:04 p.m. Booth found himself standing at his partner's door. He wasn't sure how he had gotten there but the second he pulled down the street he found his heart have driven him to the all familiar apartment. As if on autopilot his heart took over, leading him up the starts and directly to her apartment. Placing his hand up to the door to knock, he heard a gasp behind him.

His head whipped back as he stared at the mess she had become in a few short hours. The hallow, tear stained face and her rumpled up clothing were signs of a fear she would never admit. As much as his mind longed to sever the grip she held on his heart, the site of the wreck before him was enough to push any fears out of his mind. He didn't care the cost anymore; all he cared about was righting his dastardly wrongs.

"Bones…" He gasped as his eyes raked her body, "How?" But before the word even left his mouth, they both knew the truth. This nightly affair was taking a toll on both of them.

Ignoring the watchful eyes she pushed him aside before slipping her keys into the door but that was as far as she got. Tonight they wouldn't even make it in the door; the glimmer in his eyes was proof of that. Trailing his hands up her weak form he shoved her against her front door with such force the contents of her hands scattered across the hallway.

"Booth" She groaned as he dug his body into hers.

"Yes baby?" He meekly whispered, trailing his lips over her exposed skin in soothing reverence.

"We need…" Brennan was determined to discuss the details of their new relationship but as his fingers dug deeper into her skin all thoughts slowly drifted into the wind.

"You thought I was with another woman tonight…" His soft voice void of all emotion, "well the truth is so did I. But you see Bones; I can't get you out of my head. It seems no other could even come close to the way you make me feel." Pressing his body deep against hers, Brennan moaned as her skin burned at his touch, "No one… ever will come close to my love for you." He raspy confessed as his lips locked on her skin, marking her as his.

As quickly as he came Booth released her body and disappeared down the dimly lit stairwell. He was running, he knew that now, but he didn't care. His raw, terrifying admissions had shaken him to his core. He hadn't meant to admit it but the second his mouth opened the words just began to flow.

Placing her head on her front door Brennan sighed. This whole sex and run thing was destroying them both bit by bit and if they both weren't careful they were going to get burned. Who was she kidding, she was already scared beyond repair and it was all his fault.

"I love you…" She whispered down the now empty corridor before turning her knob and stepping into her apartment. Stripping in her living room she ran down the hall toward her bathroom. As cool liquid rushed over her body Brennan shivered. The heat from his touch flowing over her form caused the bathroom to instantly steam.

"I'll always love you…" She whispered over and over as the tears fell once again, shattering her last bit of resolve.


	3. Above All Rational

Seven days, that is all it took for her to break in such an undeniable fashion there was no more doubt in her mind. She was damaged goods. For no rationally explainable reason she shattered without reason or cause. The walls were falling quickly and soon all she would be left with was a mound of rubble and a broken heart.

"Dr. Brennan…" The young man before her pleaded, "We need to discuss your sudden outburst at the crime scene today."

Her eyes flicked up and quickly narrowed at the young psychologist. Sure, she had agreed to a single session but never had she agreed to actually talking about what had happened, just to sit.

"Agent Booth… he believes your sudden shift in demeanor will have an adverse affect on your partnership." He quickly finished, scrawling slowly on in his notebook.

Her eyes narrowed further into unrecognizable slits, knowing her partner would never discuss the inner workings of the partnership with such a feeble imbecile. If he was going to use this lying tactic she knew this session would be shorter than she had predicted. Maybe if she played her cards right she would be able to get out of the Hoover before Booth came out of his meeting, leaving her partner none the wiser of her grave choice.

"He may not have actually told me…" He slowly confessed, flinching at the ghostly stare penetrating every inch of his skin, "but I assure you locking yourself in the SUV and refusing to come out is both childish and…"

"Sweets…" Brennan hissed, "I am not a child." She barked as she stood, "I am older than you!"

"I am not calling you a child, Dr. Brennan" He clarified, holding his hand up to stop her hurried movements, "but sometimes when our emotions get the better of us we tend to act in childish manners. We ourselves are not children but our actions do not convey our adult mentality."

"I am not…" She growled, clearly unhappy with his correct assumptions.

Locking herself in the SUV and refusing to even look at her partner _was_ childish. After all, all he had done was told her she looked beautiful that morning, Noting more than a friendly intercourse between two partners. He was being a gentleman. He had meant nothing by it. She had convinced herself of this fact for the last five years but the stark, desperately needing that dripped from every salable told a much different story.

His body had craved her touch as much as she had. Yet he had not given in to his desire in seven long, damn near haunting nights. For seven long nights insomnia had penetrated her from dusk till dawn but did he care? No. He just went along as if he hadn't felt it too. That the dark pools under his eyes and the constant coffee cups at his side were not any indication of his suffering, that he had the same desperate need to be one before any chance of a dream state was even thought of being feasible.

"So you are saying you are not ashamed by your actions?" He courageously prodded, "If I was to tell your co-workers of your actions this morning… you are telling me…"

"Stop!" She yelled in defeat, "You assured me during our first session…" He words were soft and vulnerable, much more than she had ever meant them to be, "that this is a room of complete confidentiality. I hope… know you need to respect that."

"That I do, Dr. Brennan." He nodded, "In this state of confidentiality, is there anything you would like to confess to?"

"No."

"So your…" With a glance down at his notes Sweets smiled smugly, "refusal of your partner's assistance in retrieving you from the locked vehicle has nothing to do with unresolved trust issues?"

"I trust Booth, Sweets." She spoke earnestly, "Since you do not have a partner, I assure you that you are incapable of understanding our deep affecti- trust in each other. Partners have to trust each other. They just do."

"So you trust him?"

"Explicably."

"You trust him with your deep dark secrets?"

With an easy nod, Brennan's eyes glanced up but soon fell.

"With things you believe could even harm… or break your partnership, you trust him enough to be that honest with him?"

"It's a rule." She hissed in utter defiance, refusing to give in and admit it out loud.

"And this… rule is written down somewhere I can retrieve it for research on partners?"

Leaning back into the chair, Brennan sighed. There was once a time when the only things she had believed in could be proved by scientific research and countless accredited authors but this rule only had one author. Booth. Somehow his rules of partners and life had found a way through her scientific facts, nestling deep in her undeniable truths.

"If you look through the countless literature…"

"So you can point me to your reference?" He cut in, refusing to let her lecture her way out of this, "You assure me there are many studies on this rule… Dr. Brennan have you actually read any of them?"

There Dr. Brennan sat wide-eyed and highly annoyed. There may have been many occasions in this very room she had admitted many things she would have rather not said but now she knew his tricks. He was not going to get her to admit her true rational. Not now, not ever. She may _know _she loves her partner but there was no way she was going to _admit_ it… out loud… to a child.

"Sweets, I find this-" She stood as she began to turn toward the door.

"Bones!" Booth yelped in surprise as he barged through the shut door and ran right into his partner.

The partners' bodies planed across the loveseat as silence fell sharply over the small room. Smiling Sweets watched as the two ridged figures before him tried desperately to untangle without touching the other. As the rough ground against the soft, their eyes locked briefly before closing in devoted passion. Collapsing against the furniture in defeat, a slight shudder trailed down her body as his body slowly slid away.

"I… I'm sorry…" Booth stuttered as he steadied himself against the door. "The husband just came in and I know how much you like to belittle the suspects with your intellect." Beaming widely he gazed longingly at the soft smile around her lips. "I just-"

"Which integration room?" Brennan shot up and in a flash all that was left was the soft slamming of his office door.

With a knowing smile, Sweets slowly ripped up his doodles before placing the papers in the shredder. It was clear even to their lowly physiologist that their relationship had definitively changed. He knew there would be bumps in the road for the 'partners' but the answers he had long sought after were written on the woman's face the second she sat down before him.

She knew loved him more than her rational crutch, it was clear as day, the question now was… did she know how big this realization truly was?


	4. A Cry in the Midnight Sky

She was sure he hadn't heard her deep rooted confession but the looks he had been giving her recently sent up red flags quicker than even she could qualify. Sure, they had been dancing around this subject for weeks now and she could feel herself breaking slowly with each glance but he didn't know she loved him… did he? He couldn't have. This cool, level headed anthropologist was unable to love. She had told him so.

"Bones… the address?" Booth barked as he glanced across the SUV, "We have been driving around for hours. I am not even sure if we are in the right city anymore."

"I told you… oh." Brennan's words stopped dead in their tracks as she glanced down at the paper before her.

"That didn't sound like good news, Bones. Please tell me I am wrong." The exhausted man next to her pleaded. The six hours that they had spent in the car together had done nothing more then heighten Brennan's suspicion that something was wrong. If she didn't know any better she would have thought their midnight trysts where getting the better of him but her partner was a man of determination and strength. A few nights in her bed couldn't have been toying with his emotions as much as it seemed.

"I… um…" Brennan fumbled then froze as their gazes locked.

They had been living in a world full of sexual tension for years. It had even become bearable, it seemed. But that night, the look of a man slowly cracking under the weight of his own fears was slowly getting to her. She couldn't help but feel completely helpless. Being shot, almost killed, and threatened she could handle because she knew at the end of the day her partner was still just that, _hers_. That night he was not hers, he was a figment of a man trying to fight a reality that had taken hold of his with its deadly grip.

For years he had denied himself the satisfaction of what exactly was under that hot lab coat of hers for this one reason. She was his partner, nothing more, his hot, stunning partner that he couldn't touch ever again. The flood gates were open and he knew one touch was all it took for the disastrous words on the tip of his tongue to just start flowing. It was a mistake, a horrible, hot mistake. A mistake of irreconcilable consequences that seemed to filter through his mind at all the wrong times, this being a prime example of what he didn't want to happen. The almost fragile demeanor she was possessing seemed to draw him in for just one more damn kiss.

Six long hours of having all things Temperance Brennan assault his senses without any chance of slowing was sure to send any man into the pits of insanity, especially a man who craved those curves more than air to breathe. He was beyond crackling yet the ever presence of his only desire had a calming yet fear ridden undertone that could not be denied.

"Bones…" His voice was dark, void of all emotion yet full of unabated desire.

"It seems I cannot find the address." Her voice cracked as she slowly looked away, trying to pacify the tears threatening to flow. The disappointment she felt was just too much for this breaking woman to handle. Over all the years they had been together never once had he been disappointed in her. Sure, he had been upset but never disappointed. The only man she had ever loved was disappointed in her.

"Can't you… Bones, are you crying?" His voice shifted as he glanced quickly at his partner before gluing his lackluster glaze onto the fading pavement.

"N- no." She choked out, unable to keep her fear from her lips.

"Don't lie to me." His voice was soft and shallow, "I'm going to ask you once more. Are you crying?"

Silence. The only answer she was able to provide without incriminating herself further. Her eyes flicked down while his seemed to bore deep, etching the truth into her soul.

"I… I just lost the address and I'll call…" The little girl that had been kept at bay for years took a flying leap forward, flowing from her lips in heart wrenching terror. Logically she knew she had nothing to be afraid of but the thought of disappointing her only stronghold was one the one thing that broke down all barriers of her fragile soul.

As he slammed on his breaks his lips fell upon hers in pure innocence and devotion, stopping all tears in their tracks. The comforting, soothing motion had taken a mind of its own as his teeth raked across her lip pulling mutual groans from deep within. He had only meant to pull her to him an embrace but somehow his lips had taken the reins, marking his partner in pure romance. He knew in that moment his true intentions were once laid to bear.

"Okay…" Booth husky whispered as he pulled back, "While you do your little thing and get the address; I will find us a hotel for the night."

"Booth, if you're tired I can drive."

"No." He smiled briefly, trying to calm his blushing checks, "It is only a few more miles; before you know it we will be in _our_ room."

The words had dropped so innocently from his lips. He had said it countless times before yet this time it seemed to weigh heavy in the narrowing space between them. This time it meant so much more.

"That is… if you would…"He quickly tried to recover before he lost his partner to her fears once more.

"I think I'd like that, Booth." Brennan interrupted, locking the gaze of her partner just as her child-like innocent giggles filled the cabin. Top his surprise, she seemed to be smiling.


End file.
